According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, America’s unemployment rate is back in single digits, declining to 9.7 percent. But there are 20,000 fewer people working.
Perhaps the 20,000 fewer jobs are outweighed by the increasing number of “discouraged” workers who have stopped looking. The same BLS figures that calculated 20,000 jobs lost (and revised December’s figure from 85,000 lost to 150,000 lost) also showed the number of discouraged workers jumped by 136,000.
That number is borne out by the increasing number of long-term unemployed as a percentage of the total unemployment picture. While the average duration of being unemployed was only 19.9 weeks last January (when Obama took office) the latest survey shows unemployed Americans being off 30.2 weeks.
It sort of goes in with the old saying, “figures lie and liars figure.” Since government employment is now at an all-time high, the private sector unemployment rate keeps going up. Guess it follows the flow of capital.
Update: the folks at Political Math help me figure this out (a little.)
